TRONDHEIM, NORWAY — University of Massachusetts Geosciences Professor Emeritus Peter Robinson was born in Hanover, NH on 9 July 1932. He died peacefully in Trondheim, Norway on 25 March 2019 attended by his wife Suzanne McEnroe and their daughter Alexandra.
He was an exceptionally gifted scientist whose field studies informed the geologic history of Western Massachusetts, Northern New England, Western and Southern Norway. He was a leader in the study of rock magnetism, mineralogy, crystal chemistry, and petrology, the study of rocks.
Professor Robinson was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, the son of Robin Robinson, Professor of Mathematics. He attended Dartmouth College (AB Geology 1954), was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Otago 1954-56 (MSc Geology 1958), and an NSF Predoctoral Fellow at Harvard University 1958-62 (PhD 1963). He was an avid mountaineer (Bugaboos, Canada; skied the Tasman Glacier). In 1962 he joined the University of Massachusetts where he became Professor in 1976 and emeritus in 1999.
Professor Robinson was awarded the Chancellor’s Medal at the University of Massachusetts. He was elected to the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters in December 1995. He was a Fellow of the Geological Society of America, and of the Mineralogical Society of America of which he was President 1989-90.
Professor Robinson’s contributions to science ranged broadly from field studies in New England and Norway to the crystallography of minerals and their intergrowths. He was fond of showing that the deeply seated roots of northwestern Massachusetts required a corresponding ancient mountain range “higher than Everest.” He founded he new field of “lamellar magnetism” in collaboration with his wife Suzanne McEnroe and colleagues in Europe. They showed that ilmenite-hematite was the mineral pair responsible for large-amplitude remanence that dominated continental magnetic anomalies. Professor Robinson’s thrill for science was matched by his ability to make it crystal clear to students and colleagues.
[Text by S. A. Morse Dartmouth ‘52 (University of Massachusetts), Suzanne McEnroe (Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)), and Richard Harrison (Cambridge University)].